Wichita eagle., 1887-11-04
A PROUD DAY FOR WICHITA.
a Metropolitan Paper and Metropoi
tan City.

C1l S4Cy
eThus far our fortune keeps an onward course
Shakespeare
: To the good people of Wichita and tC
, all the friends and patrons Of the EAGLE
everywhere, greeting:
1t goes without saying that no enter
prise, institution or individual is more
closely allied or more consciously linden
titled with Wichita, with all she has been
is now or expects to be, than is The
EAGLE. For nearly sixteen years, in
every varying fortune, it has been, at
once, the faithful servant and the conf
dent champion Of this people and a con-
servator all their multiplied interests.
The possibilities of the ambitious border
town. as we felt and saw them, has been
our inspiration, the cause of her people
our cause, their sympathy and support
our stay and guaranty. Starting as the
finest and largest weekly paper, at that
time in the state, it has ever endeavored
to prove such a standard in style, man
ner and matter, that in Judging the city
by the paper her people should not SUI
fer. The first power press ever set up
west of Emporia was by this Office, the
first steam power printing ever done in
the state southwest Of Topeka, was by
this paper, and now the first web-per-
fecting printing machine ever owned,
set up or started in the great state Of
Kansas, printed, this morning, the sheet
which you now hold in your
hand. Few cities, east or
west, Of less than one hundred
thousand people, can boast that which
Wichita boasts this morning. No other
city in the world of its size, to say moth
ing of its age, probably, would essay such
@ venture, if it can be called such.
AS the EAGLE has, in all probability,
appeared for the last time printed by a
press from movable types, word about
the matter may be of interest, especially
to those who have been its fast friends
from the first. The machine upon which
it is now printed is known as the Scott
Web-Perfecting Printing Machine, built
by Walter Scott & Co., Of New York, at
Plainield, New Jersey. 1t was over five
months in building, and together with its
attachments, weighs nineteen tons, and
cost so many thousands of dollars we
dare not tell. Suffice it to say that il was
built to order for the greatest daily in
Kansas and has been pronounced by one
of Chicago's most accomplished pressmen
and newspaper men the finest machine
ever shipped to the west. Both St. Louis
and Chicago have heavier and
larger machines, but nothing finer
or more complete. 1t prints from
stereotype plates, and not from type, and
is driven by a thirty-horse power engine.
1t prints sixteen hundred pages, of this
size, per minute, or ninety-six thousand
pages per hour. Or. it prints and per
fects four hundred four-paged pa
pers per minute, or, it prints, cuts,
pastes folds trims and delivers from
a continuous role of paper two hundred
complete and perfected EAGLES per min
ute. 1t does this so quietly that when
any one of the other SIX presses on the
same floor are in motion the great ma
chine cannot be heard.
1t is mete that the greatest city in Kan
sas should have and boast the only met
ropolitan newspaper in the state. Her
people deserve it and we hope and ex-
pect to live to see ii handsomely-powe
fully, sustained. Some OF our readers
may not IKE the change at first. When
the weekly was made a daily there were
when the folio daily was
made quarto the criticisms Were null
tiplied, and now that the makeup is diff
ferent, the type small aud the matter
solid, some viii wish for the old open
faced paper and its arrangement.
But the cost of white paper is the great
burthen of a daily paper and as circula-
ton increases every inch of space be-
Within month the EA-
GLE ina single day, that is, in single
issue, used up one hundred up and
fifty-four $50 dollars worth of white
paper. We hope that in the near future
ii may do this seven days in the week.
And now. hoping that in our desire to
give our friends a metropolitan paper our
ambition has not overleaped itself. and
trusting that we may ever
continue in the confidence and esteem of
this entire people without regard to party,
sect, sex or religion, the EAGLE plumes
ler wings anew for loftier flights and
trander victories.
No person is allowed to distribute cleo
ion tickets or remain standing within 50
'eet of the polls during the hours that
he polls are open.-Laws of 1887, page
.t6,
Sam Jones delivered his lecture Get
There" at Topeka on Monday evening
asst. The theme was peculiarly fitting to
he place in view of its present endeavor
f the reverend gentleman comes to |
Wichita TO deliver his lecture be would /